Zaha Hadid

Zaha Hadid, founding partner of Zaha Hadid Architects, was awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2004 and is internationally known for her work. Each of her dynamic and innovative projects builds on over thirty years of revolutionary experimentation and research in the interrelated fields of urbanism, architecture and design. Hadid’s interest is in the rigorous interface between architecture, landscape, and geology as the practice integrates natural topography and human-made systems that lead to experimentation with cutting-edge technologies; The MAXXI: National Museum of 21st Century Art in Rome, BMW Central Building in Leipzig and Phaeno Science Center in Wolfsburg are all excellent demonstrations of the practice’s quest for complex, dynamic spaces. Previous seminal buildings, such as the Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art in Cincinnati and the Hoenheim-Nord Terminus in Strasbourg have been hailed as architecture that transforms our vision of the future with new spatial concepts and bold, visionary forms. Currently, the practice is working on a multitude of projects including: the Fiera di Milano master-plan and tower; the Aquatics Centre for the London 2012 Olympic Games; and the CMA CGM Head Office tower in Marseille. Hadid’s work was the subject of a critically acclaimed retrospective exhibition at New York’s Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 2006, which showcased at London’s Design Museum in 2007.

Portrait by Luke Hayes

Ramin and Rokni Haerizadeh

Ramin and Rokni Haerizadeh are two of the most engaging and exciting artists of Iranian art today. Whilst their work is distinctly different, Ramin and Rokni share similar perspectives: both use irony to critique aspects of Iranian culture and both look at everything with a sense of humour. Born in Tehran in the seventies Read Full Bio ›

Ramin and Rokni Haerizadeh are two of the most engaging and exciting artists of Iranian art today. Whilst their work is distinctly different, Ramin and Rokni share similar perspectives: both use irony to critique aspects of Iranian culture and both look at everything with a sense of humour. Born in Tehran in the seventies, the brothers were exiled in 2009 and now share a studio-warehouse in Dubai. Their work features in world-class collections, including the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art and the Francois Pinault collection. Ramin and Rokni Haerizadeh have exhibited extensively in the Middle East and internationally: in 2009 they exhibited at the Saatchi Gallery in London and the critically acclaimed group show, Raad o Bargh, at the Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris.

Shirazeh Houshiary

Shirazeh Houshiary was born in Shiraz, Iran 1955. She moved to London in 1974 and studied at the Chelsea School of Art between 1976-1979. Houshiary quickly became established at the forefront of the younger generation of sculptors working in Read Full Bio ›

Shirazeh Houshiary was born in Shiraz, Iran 1955. She moved to London in 1974 and studied at the Chelsea School of Art between 1976-1979. Houshiary quickly became established at the forefront of the younger generation of sculptors working in Britain in the 1980s. Her solo shows include the Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York 1999, 2003, 2006 and 2010; The Centre d’Art Contemporain, Geneve 1988, which then toured to the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford in 1989; and Isthmus, which showed at Magasin – Centre National d’Art Contemporain de Grenoble before touring extensively across Vienna between 1995-1996. Most recently, her work has been included in the XXIII Bienal de Sao Paulo in 1996, 10 Intensite In Europa at Centroper l’Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato 1998, Skultur: a Brick Intervention, Basel in 2000, the Skulptur Biennian Munsterland in 2003, Art and Happiness Mori Art Museum Tokyo 2003, Turning Points 20th Century British Sculpture, at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art in 2004, Without Boundary, at the Museum of Modern Art 2006, What is Painting, MOMA New York 2007, Deloitte Ignite, Roya Opera House London 2008, Between Metaphor and Object, IMMA Dublin 2009 and the Sydney Biennale 2010. Houshiary was short-listed for the Turner Prize at the Tate Gallery in 1994 and was awarded the title Professor at the London Institute in 1997. Houshiary lives and works in London.

Ali Khadra, Chair of the Judging Panel

A keen collector of Contemporary art, Ali Khadra started his career in the hospitality industry before Read Full Bio ›

A keen collector of Contemporary art, Ali Khadra started his career in the hospitality industry before turning his passions for art and publishing into a profession.

In 2004 he founded the boutique publishing house, Mixed Media Publishing and launched its flagship title, Canvas. As the premier magazine for art and culture from the Middle East and Arab world, Canvas has received international acclaim and has established itself as a catalyst on the global art scene. He has expanded the business to include contract publishing: Canvas Folios, art and luxury consultancy, art seminars: Canvas Education and a creative art-marketing agency. Furthermore, Khadra has participated in numerous international conferences and panels on the topic of Middle Eastern art.

He is now looking at the global art market and aiming to bridge the gap between the arts and television with Canvas TV, a global arts channel launching in 2011. A 24-hour network, Canvas TV will cover international Arts & Lifestyle programs. Khadra is the regional consultant for the world’s leading auction house, Christie’s, a patron of the Tate Modern and a member of the Tate’s recently formed Middle Eastern art acquisition committee. He also serves on the committees of several organizations, including Prix Pictet, the V&A’s Jameel Prize, the Parasol Unit, the Abraaj Capital Art Prize and the Magic of Persia Contemporary Art Prize.

Khadra is an active advocate of philanthropy, which he also applies on the corporate level through Canvas Holding’s activities.

Idris Khan

Born in Birmingham in 1978, Idris Khan received his MFA from the Royal College of Art in 2004 Read Full Bio ›

Born in Birmingham in 1978, Idris Khan received his MFA from the Royal College of Art in 2004. Khan’s work challenges our assumptions about various media – how they are received and digested. Words and music, which we experience sequentially and which gain power from repetition are to an extent robbed of their function by becoming almost solid images.

Employing seminal texts, musical scores and paintings as well as key works from the photographic oeuvre, Idris Khan transforms the cool art of appropriation into a meditation about authorship and time. Khan often photographs a variety of material – sometimes borrowed, sometimes of his own creation – and digitally layers the results. The results spark new thoughts about the original content, or open up seams of interpretation. Khan has had a major solo exhibition at K20, Düsseldorf in 2008 and his most recent international exhibitions include: The Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto 2009; Espace Louis Vuitton, Paris 2009; Baibakov Art Projects, Moscow 2009; IKON, Birmingham 2009; Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin 2009; Andalusian Centre of Photography, Spain 2008; and Art Dubai 2008. Khan’s work features in the forthcoming exhibition Haunted at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York 2010, which will travel to the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao. The artist lives and works in London.

Abaseh Mirvali

Abaseh Mirvali is the President of Mirvali Projects, an independent contemporary arts organization. She previously served as the Executive Director of the internationally renowned Fundación/Colección Jumex Read Full Bio ›

Abaseh Mirvali is the President of Mirvali Projects, an independent contemporary arts organization. She previously served as the Executive Director of the internationally renowned Fundación/Colección Jumex: during her tenure, she coordinated a number of major exhibitions that established it as a leading force in the contemporary Latin American art world. The vigor and quality of Fundación/Colección Jumex today is a testament to her work there over the past years. Mirvali also sits on the selection committee for several foundations, and in addition to advisory and directorial roles, is an internationally recognized contemporary art commentator and jurist. She has served on several juries such as the Volta Show and the Toronto Photography Festival in 2006 and was invited to moderate at ArteBA in 2007 and at ArtBasel and Art Forum Berlin in 2009. In 2010, she was invited to speak on a panel on contemporary arts and gender in Los Angeles and will be moderating an Art Basel conversation on the contemporary art scene in Beirut at Art Basel this summer.

Mohammad Mottahedan

Mohammad Mottahedan is an art patron and advisor living in London. At the start of the 1980s, a new generation of artists burst onto the American scene; eager to play a part in this golden age of New York contemporary art, Read Full Bio ›

Mohammad Mottahedan is an art patron and advisor living in London. At the start of the 1980s, a new generation of artists burst onto the American scene; eager to play a part in this golden age of New York contemporary art, Mottahedan set about assembling a comprehensive collection of what is now recognised as historically important work. The Mottahedan Collection includes over eighty works by iconic artists of 80s, including Jeff Koons, Christopher Wool, Cindy Sherman, Barbara Kruger and Peter Halley. Images from the collection have been published in a fully illustrated book, Once Upon a Time in America by Christie’s Books. More recently, Mottahedan extended his interests to the young British art scene, represented by the likes of Raqib Shaw, Wangchi Mutu and Nigel Cooke.

Hans Ulrich Obrist

Hans Ulrich Obrist became Co-Director of Exhibitions and Programmes, and Director of International Projects at the Serpentine Gallery in 2006, joining Julia Peyton-Jones, the Serpentine Gallery Director and MOP CAP ’09 jurist Read Full Bio ›

Hans Ulrich Obrist became Co-Director of Exhibitions and Programmes, and Director of International Projects at the Serpentine Gallery in 2006, joining Julia Peyton-Jones, the Serpentine Gallery Director and MOP CAP ’09 jurist. Obrist has curated and co-curated over 200 solo and group exhibitions and biennales internationally since 1991, including: World Soup, 1991; do it, 1994; Take Me, I’m Yours, 1995; Manifesta 1, 1996; Laboratorium, 1999; Cities on the Move, 1997; Live/Life, 1996; Nuit Blanche, 1998; 1st Berlin Biennale, 1998; Utopia Station, 2003; 2nd Guangzhou Triennale, 2005; Dakar Biennale, 2004; 1st & 2nd Moscow Biennale, 2005 and 2007; Lyon Biennale, 2007; Il Tempo del Postino, with Philippe Parreno for the Manchester International Festival, 2007; Everstill, 2008; and Yokohama Triennale, 2008. The Van Alen Institute awarded him the New York Prize Senior Fellowship for 2007-2008 and he was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) in 2009. Obrist is highly published and is contributing editor of Abitare Magazine, Artforum, Paradis Magazine and 032c Magazine.